MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In many European capitals, there's fear and dismay about President-elect Donald Trump coming to power again. Last time around, he threatened to leave NATO, started a trade war with the European Union and pulled out of the Paris climate agreement. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
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ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: During Donald Trump's first presidency, French President Emmanuel Macron wowed him with a Bastille Day military parade and wined and dined him at the Eiffel Tower. But his attempts to become Europe's Trump whisperer didn't pan out. This time around, Macron has no illusions. He told European leaders this is a decisive moment for Europe.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "The question is are we ready to defend European interests, or will we delegate our geopolitical security to America?" he asked.
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MACRON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: He warned Europe could not remain a herbivore in a world of carnivores. Macron has long pushed for what he calls Europe's strategic autonomy, which could only be achievable alongside its historic partner, Germany. That country has often been on board, says Sylvie Kauffmann, foreign editorialist at newspaper Le Monde.
SYLVIE KAUFFMANN: When Trump was elected the first time, you remember, Angela Merkel said, now we have to take responsibility for European security ourselves. We're all alone.
BEARDSLEY: But Europe did nothing, says Kauffmann, and now a war rages in Ukraine. There is fear President Trump will negotiate a peace deal directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving the EU out. So wouldn't this be the perfect time for its two largest economies to come together to fortify Europe? Not according to Martin Quencez, Paris office director of the German Marshall Fund.
MARTIN QUENCEZ: There is a lack of leadership, political leadership, right now in Europe, both in France and Germany, which traditionally have been, you know, the main motors of the European project.
BEARDSLEY: Macron is weakened after elections last summer that left him with a parliament he no longer controls. The government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz just collapsed.
HANS STARK: Germany has no government. France has no majority. The U.K. is out of the EU. So where can you build strategic autonomy in Europe, with whom?
BEARDSLEY: That's Hans Stark, Franco-German specialist at Ifri, a Paris-based think tank. He says Trump has a particular bone to pick with Berlin.
STARK: When he's telling the journalists, hey, listen, guys, you have 60 billion of trade surplus with us and we protect you, and that's not normal. And he's right.
BEARDSLEY: Trump has threatened big tariffs on European imports. The EU wants to avoid a trade war. So is there a Trump whisperer this time around?
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PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Trump's win a beautiful victory, but Le Monde's Kauffmann says he can't rally other EU leaders. The one to watch is Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the national conservative leader of Europe's third largest economy, Italy.
KAUFFMANN: Meloni ideologically is closer to Trump than Macron or Scholz, but she's also pro-European. She's not like Orban. She's not trying to sabotage the EU all the time. She has been helping Ukraine.
BEARDSLEY: But even with a war on its doorstep and Trump in the White House, it's far from certain Europe will come together, says Quencez.
QUENCEZ: Rather than a more cohesive and stronger Europe that the French are calling for, we could also see a more fragmented Europe.
BEARDSLEY: Even if most consider Trump's reelection to be a wake-up call, it's far from certain Europe as a whole will hear it.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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